Euronews

Monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have not been able to secure access to the site where airliner MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine, according to OSCE chairman Thomas Greminger,

“They [the monitors] did not have the kind of access that they expected. They did not have the freedom of movement they need to do their job,” Greminger told Reuters by telephone.

Greminger said the team of 17 OSCE monitors would try again on Saturday to gain access.

The OSCE mission forms part of international efforts to find out what happened to Malaysia Airlines passenger jet, which crashed with 298 people on board.

The Ukrainian authorities have called the incident “an act of terrorism” and asserted that the plane was hit by a Russian-built missile.